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Post by Gabriella

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Happy New Year perfumed peeps!

Today I want to share with you three fragrant wishes for 2014, or more aptly, three good things I started to do last year and want to continue.

New Years Resolutions 2014 (The Fragrant Version)

1. Sharing my perfume hobby more with friends and family.

Case number one: My Mum. Mum’s been faithful to Giorgio for several years now. It smells great on her and she likes it, but can’t really smell it anymore. Several attempts to get her to try other things have usually been met with much protest. So, when I gifted her with some samples on a recent visit to Sydney, I fully expected them to lie unused in her dresser. Not so. When we went to stay with my parents at Christmas, she happily announced that she was wearing Aurora Nomade by The Different Company. She then proceeded to be utterly charmed by Beyond Love By Kilian and Manguier Metisse by Parfumerie Generale and Cocobello by Heeley. She’s loving it and she’s still going….

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Case number two: a family friend, Miss L, who asked me to help her find a new perfume several months ago. After some time sniffing, testing and sample gifting, my brother announces at Christmas that she’s hit the jackpot. The chosen one is “the Guerlain with the Japanese name”. “Ahhh, Mitsouko!” Mr M proclaims (I’ve taught him well people). Miss L wanted a bottle of the EDP but couldn’t find it anywhere and contacted me in desperation. I had a partial bottle that was lying around unloved that I happily gave her. She was thrilled and I haven’t felt better about a perfume experience for a long time.

2. Exploring more scents on the very masculine end of the spectrum.

I’m as girly-girl as they come and so are my perfume tastes, mostly. I realise that it’s a no-no to speak of a gender divide in perfume, but I have not smelt enough (or reviewed enough) scents that lie in what I deem to be the more masculine camp. This was prompted this was Mr M’s request for a fourth scent for Christmas. He has Autoportrait by Olfactive Studio, Pour Homme by Paco Rabanne and Antaeus by Chanel and isn’t going to be wearing Fracas or even something more unisex anytime soon.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

I chose Bois du Portugal by Creed. It smelt great on me, great on the card, and even my Mum loved it. But it was a disaster on him: waaaaay too sweet and too much lavender. The whole exercise made me realise that I haven’t smelt any of the masculine Amouages, Knize Ten, most Chanels for men and lord knows what else. In 2014, I want to rectify that.

3. Cull more of my collection

After many impulse buys and hence a few bottles lying around untouched, I have finally realised that there’s a huge distinction between the perfume I want to wear most of the time and the perfume I want to experience, wear on the odd occasion, or write about. This hobby certainly doesn’t mean I have to have 30 bottles that get worn once a year, it’s about enjoying what you have. And in saying that, sometimes less is more. So, full bottles only for the ones I regularly use and samples or decants for everything else. I really would like to get my collection down to eight or ten bottles and the rest is going to be sold.

Photo Stolen Vogue Tumbler

So, what do you think of my list? Do you have any perfume goals or wishes for this year? What perfumes do you want to buy or experience this year?

With much love until next time!

M x